Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"Who asked you if you like it?" Li Tianliu teased, "I asked you, why didn't you tell me about the last time she dressed up as a ghost?"

Fu Jiu asked curiously, "Why do you say that? I'm not afraid of ghosts."

Li Tianliu kicked him and asked in a different tone, "How many times have you met her?"

Fu Jiu rubbed her legs and replied, "Twice."

Li Tianliu glanced at him: "You have met her twice, and you have never thought about going to see her?"

Fu Jiu asked back, "I don't like ghosts, so why should I go see her?"

Li Tianliu said "Hey" and became excited: "Aren't you curious about why she pretended to be a ghost?"

After thinking for a while, Fu Jiu replied, "I'm a little curious."

That's right! Li Tianliu quickly pressed the issue: "Why don't you go see her or ask her?"

Fu Jiu said as a matter of course: "Because I don't like ghosts."

Li Tianliu was so angry that he wanted to kick him again: "Then what do you mean by curiosity?"

Fu Jiu avoided him and said, "I didn't say it. You asked me."

"Alright." Chen Shao interrupted their endless chatter, "Send someone to find the person and ask him about the situation. Now pack up quickly and follow me to the second hall."

Fu Jiu pulled at the wrinkles on her clothes and followed her decisively.

Li Tianliu signaled a guard on duty in the courtyard to go find the woman in white, and followed him. Seeing his heartless look, he asked, "What does that female ghost look like?"

Fu Jiu was about to answer that she didn't know, but when the words came to her lips, she suddenly crossed her arms over her chest, laughed at him meaningfully and said, "You like female ghosts!"

Li Tianliu raised his eyebrows, "When did I start liking female ghosts?"

Fu Jiu looked as if she had seen through him and said, "If you don't like female ghosts, why do you keep asking?"

Chen Shao shook his head. It was hard to understand why they could talk so much nonsense about such a simple matter. He was too lazy to interrupt them. He walked slowly to the second hall along the shade of the tree, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan. When he saw a room full of people, he was stunned for a moment before walking in.

When everyone in the second hall saw her, they immediately stopped talking and took two steps forward to bow to her.

Chen Shao simply nodded, sat down at the desk, and roughly counted the number of people, more than 30 people, "Have you brought all the credentials I requested?"

Everyone answered in unison: "We brought them all."

Chen Shao ordered Fu Jiu: "Go and collect it."

After Fu Jiu collected the certificates from everyone, Chen Shao first glanced through them, then randomly pulled out a certificate and said, "Huichuntang."

The shopkeeper of Huichun Hall hurriedly stepped out from the crowd and bowed respectfully, saying, "My humble servant Dong Jin greets you, sir."

Chen Shao laid out the credentials handed over by Huichuntang one by one, looked at each one carefully, looked up at him and said, "Is Huichuntang a rented shop?"

Dong Jin replied politely, "Yes."

Chen Shao asked: "Whose shop are you renting?"

Dong Jin still answered politely: "The shop we rented is the Wen family's."

Wen Family... Chen Shao looked at him twice more, then brought the price list of medicinal materials and prescriptions to him. "I see the address of the medicine shop written on the receipt is Yanghuai Street, which is the main street of the county town. The rent should not be cheap, right? Huichuntang has rented two shops in total. Can you tell me how much the annual rent of these two shops is?"

The receipt had the rent written on it. Dong Jin raised his head and glanced at her, wanting to see if she was deliberately making things difficult for him. Seeing that her attention was focused on the receipt, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and answer, "Sixty strings of cash."

Chen Shao asked: "So that's five strings of cash a month?"

Just as Dong Jin was about to say yes, someone suddenly cursed in a low voice: "Bullshit!"

Dong Jin's heart skipped a beat and he instinctively turned around to look. Everyone's expressions were normal and it was impossible to tell who had spoken. Dong Jin had no choice but to look away and nervously looked at Chen Shao. Seeing that Chen Shao's attention was still on the evidence and he didn't seem to have heard the scolding just now, he felt a little relieved and quickly replied, "Yes."

After Chen Shao wrote it down with a pen, he continued to ask without raising his head: "Where do the medicinal materials of Huichuntang come from?"

Dong Jin answered truthfully: "Mainly purchased from pharmacies."

Chen Shao thought of the piles of medicinal herbs placed on the ground by Fenglong Commercial Bank and asked, "Where did you buy them from?"

Dong Jin bowed his hands and answered in a rather bewildered manner: "I didn't know the face of Shopkeeper Shen before. Because the medicinal materials of Fenglong Commercial Bank are a few cents cheaper than those of other places, I mostly bought them from Fenglong Commercial Bank."

After a pause, risking being cursed again, he continued, "Many pharmacies purchase their medicinal materials from Fenglong Trading Company."

Chen Shao did not pursue this. He took out the list of medicinal materials and prescriptions from Wankangtang and Yangshengtang, compared them with those from Huichuntang, and said, "The price of purple grass is five cents per ounce, and the price of Rehmannia root is also five cents per ounce... The price of medicinal materials at Huichuntang seems to be lower than that of other shops?"

Dong Jin had not expected that she would read out the price in front of so many people. Feeling the gazes of the people behind him, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and answer again: "Huichuntang has always taken the path of small profits but quick turnover to take care of the people..."

"That's bullshit!" Before he could finish his words, three people started to curse in unison, "Whether it's the herbs or prescriptions sold at Huichuntang, they're at least one cent more expensive than other shops. If you sell at a low profit but high volume, what are we?"

Being exposed in public, Dong Jin blushed and glanced at Chen Shao. Seeing that she was looking at him inquiringly, he immediately counterattacked: "My Huichuntang shop is on Yanghuai Street. I said small profits but quick turnover. I'm not competing with you. Why are you so anxious!"

"We are all pharmacies. If you don't compete with us, who are you competing with?" Another shopkeeper stepped forward, "Are you comparing yourself with the gold, silver and porcelain in Baibaozhai?"

Someone else asked, "When did you ever sell the purple grass and rehmannia root in Huichun Hall for five cents an ounce?"

Chen Shao raised her lips calmly, retracted her gaze, and went through the information of each pharmacy again. This time, she focused on the prices of each pharmacy. Huichuntang's medicinal materials and prescriptions were already very low, but there were several pharmacies with even lower prices than his. However, when comparing their annual profit statements and commercial tax receipts, there was nothing wrong with them. So where was the problem?

Chen Shao picked up the gavel and knocked. After everyone quieted down, he slowly said, "Okay, how can you make such a fuss in the court?"

Everyone quickly put away their anger and bowed their hands to admit their mistakes.

"No need to argue, all of you go now." Chen Shao deliberately said in a cold voice, "I'll keep these evidence for now. If I encounter any problems during the evaluation, I'll ask someone to invite you over."

Although some people were not convinced, they did not dare to act rashly. After some uncoordinated and reluctant responses, they finally left one by one.

Fu Jiu watched everyone walk away, and quickly turned back to ask, "Are they all cheating?"

Chen Shao said 'hmm'.

Fu Jiu was puzzled and asked, "Since you knew they were cheating, why didn't you expose them?"